Date

Location

Force

Aircraft

From-To

Crew

18-03-1943

Portuguese Guinea

Ferry Command        USAAF

Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress                                                                    

Lt.Cor   Hunter Harris                  USA

1Lt.       Alden T. Mann                USA

1Lt.       Lawrence E. Wolfe         USA

1Lt.       Claude V. Toyek             USA

1Lt.       Leo R. Kisamore             USA

I was unable to confirm the exact date of the landing. It is although certain that it happened in a swamp, and the aircraft stopped with a wheel jammed in the mood and a broken propeller.

The crew returned home in a Clipper from PANAM.

It was a Portuguese Army officer with the help from a private pilot that took the plane out of the swampy area transported it to a place where it was less exposed to the rain, floods and weather in general. The engines were started from time to time so the systems were kept running and avoinding the batteries from discharging.

Latter Major Costa Macedo, of the Aeronáutica Militar, was able to take off and land it in the Bolama Airport, where the plane spent its last days until it was scrapped.

The crew - except Harris - was shot sown over the North Sea on the way to bomb Germany.

Their aircraft was hit by Antiaircraft fire over the Heligholand islands. Kisamore died hit by a 20 mm shell and Mann died in the Hospital on May, 22 from severe burns suffered in the plane.

The others where piked up by fishing boats and became POW's until the end of the war.

Resources:
*  “Aviões da Cruz de Cristo” – Mário Cannongia Lopes
* Revista "Mais Alto"
* Mário Canongia Lopes
* Missing Aircraft Report - AFHRA